Category: U17

Grovehill Ballpark to host U14 and U12 Wild Card National Championship Playoffs

The Herts U12 team is preparing for its first ever appearance in the national championship playoffs

With all four Herts adult league teams missing out on the playoffs, the hopes of Herts baseball fans now rest on the club’s three youth teams which are preparing for the playoffs in the under-17, under-14 and under-12 leagues.

The British Baseball Federation has just announced that the Herts Harriers have been awarded a place in the Under-17 national semi-finals automatically as the second seed. In a repeat of last-year’s semi-final, they will face the London Mets who are the third seed.

The path to the final is a lot more difficult for the Herts Cardinals in the Under-14 who will have to go through a 3-team Wild Card Playoff facing the Brentwood Bucks and Essex Redbacks. The Herts Under-12 team will also have to go through the Wild Card Playoff where they will face the Under-12 team of the Brentwood Bucks. The BBF has selected Grovehill Ballpark in Hemel Hempstead as the venue to host these games on 6 September. The winner of these Wild Card playoffs will progress through to the National Semi-Final where they will face the top seeds in the respective age groups.

Boys and girls from around the region are still contacting the club and signing up to play in these exciting games to determine the national baseball champions, so it is not too late to get involved.

2014 Herts Futures Tournament details announced

Herts Baseball Club has announced that the 2014 Herts Futures Tournament will take place on Saturday, 20 September 2014.

The Herts Futures Tournament (HFT) has been held every year since 2008 and is now a permanent fixture in the British baseball calendar. Last year was a record year for the HFT with 15 teams entering the competition, which makes it the largest youth baseball event in the United Kingdom. Herts Baseball Club Board Member, Aspi Dimitrov, said: “It will be interesting to see how many teams will enter this year. If the number continues to increase we will have to consider ways of expanding the venue as last year we were close to reaching the venue’s capacity.”

The event brings together youth teams of all age groups from across the country for a day of baseball at one of the best baseball venues in the UK. Grovehill Ballpark is the home of Herts Baseball Club. Over the last few years the venue has been selected to host some of the biggest events in the British baseball calendar including the National Baseball Championships. During the Herts Futures Tournament additional diamonds are added to cater for all the age groups.

In addition to inviting Under-17, Under-14 and Under-12 teams, this year the organisers are exploring the option to add an Under-10 division.

For more information about the event or if you require details about how teams can enter the Tournament or how players can join the Herts teams in time for the HFT, visit the Herts Futures Tournament homepage or contact Herts Baseball Club.

Herts youngsters prepare for the opening game versus the Czechs tonight

In the British under-17 leagues, last month the Southern Conference overcame the Northern and Midlands conference to secure their place in the Europe and Africa qualification stage of the 2014 Little League World Series. This phase of the competition will be held between 6 and 12 July in Novara, Italy.

The Southern Conference All Star team, which will compete as UK’s representative, has now arrived in Italy. It features players from the Herts Harriers, London Mets and LYBL Bulldogs. Team UK has been placed in a very competitive group with Belgium, Spain and the Czech Republic which is a country making major strides and attracting a lot of attention from the multi-million dollar teams of Major League Baseball in America. Team UK’s first game is against the Czechs on Monday, 7 July, under the lights starting at 7:30pm UK time.

In the other group are France, Italy, the Netherlands and Lithuania, who already caused a major shock by beating last year’s winner Italy 9-4 in extra innings last night in the opening game of this competition.

The overall winner will progress to the Little League World Series which is shown live on ESPN around the world. Last year Italy qualified for the World Series by beating Team UK.

Herts Baseball Club’s representatives are infielder Carlos Casal Jr, third baseman and catcher Sebastian Molina and pitcher Zack Longboy.

Over the course of the competition this week most of the games will be televised on the internet (click to view). You can receive alerts about the TV schedule and regular updates from Italy by following Herts Baseball Club on twitter and facebook.

2014 LITTLE LEAGUE (UNDER-17) – EUROPE AND AFRICA QUALIFYING

(the win-loss records of the teams in the groups stage will be updated in orange over the course of the week)

Pool A
Belgium (BEL) 0-3
Czech Republic (CZE) 3-0
Great Britain (GBR) 2-1
Spain (ESP) 1-2

Pool B
France (FRA) 0-3
Italy (ITA) 2-1
Netherland (NED) 1-2
Lithuania (LIT) 3-0

SCHEDULE OF GAMES

(the final scores will be updated in orange as they come in over the course of the week)

Sunday July 6th ( Opening Game )
1 ITA 4 LIT 9  (8:30pm) Novara

Monday July 7th
2 FRA 5 NED 9 (10.00am) Novara
3 ESP 11 BEL 2 (1:30pm) Novara
4 CZE 4 GBR 0 (8:30pm) Novara (game suspended in 3rd inning due to lightning/rain with Czechs leading 3-0, will be resumed 9:30am UK time on Tuesday, 8 July.)

Tuesday July 8th
5 LIT 11 NED 10 (2:30pm) Vercelli
6 BEL 6 CZE  18 (5:30pm) Vercelli
7 FRA 1 ITA 14 (2:30pm) Novara
8 GBR 5 ESP 4 (F/9) (5:30pm) Novara

Wednesday July 9th
9 GBR 11 BEL 4 (10.00am) Novara
10 ESP 9 CZE 14 (2:00pm) Novara
11 LIT 10 FRA (5:30pm) Novara
12 NED 0 ITA 10 (8:30pm) Novara

Thursday July 10th
13 3rd Pool A ESP – 4th Pool B FRA 2:30pm Vercelli
14 3rd Pool B NED – 4th Pool A BEL 5:30pm Vercelli
15 1st Pool A CZE – 2nd Pool B ITA 2:30pm Novara
16 1st Pool B LIT – 2nd Pool A GBR 5:30pm Novara

Friday July 11th

7th – 8th place
17 Looser game 13 – Looser game 14 2:30pm Novara

5th – 6th place
18 Winner game 13 – Winner game 14 5:30pm Novara

Saturday July 12th

3rd – 4th place
19 Looser game 15 – Looser game 16 2:30pm Novara

1st-2nd place – CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
20 Winner game 15 – Winner game 16 5:30pm Novara

 

Note: For each game the first team indicated in the schedule is the home team .

 

Herts U12s heading for Farnham Park as part of a big weekend of baseball

View of Farnham Park from the skies (photo by BSUK)

The baseball weekend begins at Farnham Park as a Herts under 12 All Star team is unleashed on the national scene for the first time in the careers of that age group. They will be competing in the under 12 bracket of the Little League UK Championship and will face the London Mets first up at 12:30pm. Depending on the outcome of that first game they will battle through the tournament tree shown below:

Saturday, 14 June
10:00 London Sports vs Essex Redbacks (Game 1)
12:30 Herts vs London Mets (Game 2)
15:00 Loser Gm 1 vs Loser Gm 2 (Game 3)

Sunday, 15 June
10:00 LYBL vs Winner of Game 1 (Game 4)
12:30 Winner Game 3 vs Winner Game 2 (Game 5)
15:00 Winner Game 4 vs Winner Game 5

The tournament will be held at Farnham Park and will be hosted by BSUK and BBF.

Herts will also be represented in the U17 Little League UK Championship as an All Star team representing all U17 teams from the South of England go head-to-head with an All Star team representing the Midlands and the North. The U17 UK Champions will be decided in a best-of-3 series over the weekend. The winner will progress through to the European qualifying stage which will be held in Italy next month, for a chance to reach the Little League World Series in August.

At the same time at Grovehill Ballpark in Hemel Hempstead the Herts Ravens have an U17 League doubleheader versus the Forest Glade Redbacks. First pitch is at 12pm. Food and drinks will be on offer throughout the day.

Baseball and pretty much everything else in the UK will stop on Saturday night as the England football team plays its first World Cup 2014 game against Italy.

The baseball action continues on Sunday at Grovehill Ballpark with two games from the British adult leagues. In the Double-A League the Herts Hawks will be looking to put their season back on track with a win against the Bracknell Inferno, while the Herts Raptors will be looking for their first win of the season in their Single-A League encounter with Tonbridge. Both games start at 12pm.

 

Longboy is back

Herts Baseball Club is receiving a very timely boost with the return of pitcher Zack Longboy. Over the last few months Longboy has been unavailable for selection as he has been competing in the American varsity league, as a pitcher for his American school team, ASL Eagles. The varsity league season ended on Saturday with the ASL Eagles finishing second after a 3-2 loss to ACS Cobham in the final. Longboy has had another outstanding varsity season. His record is 5 wins 0 losses, with an ERA of 1.85. At the weekend he was voted into the All-Tournament Team, which is the varsity league equivalent of MLB’s end of season awards such as the Rawlings Gold Glove Awards. This is the second consecutive year that Zack Longboy finds himself nominated in this prestigious list.

The Herts Hawks and the Herts Harriers have missed Longboy but he is back now and his return is coming at a crucial stage of the season. The Hawks have 4 wins and 6 losses so far this season and they need to start winning series to go above .500 and stay in the playoff race. They travel to Brentwood this Sunday for a doubleheader with the Brentwood Stags. The Harriers are preparing for four crucial games against the LYBL Bulldogs on the road to the Little League UK Qualifier on 14 and 15 June. The first of these is this Saturday, 31 May. Herts will lose Longboy along with six other players who will be flying to Florida with the Great Britain under-17 national team. Hopefully, this will not be too costly.

These have been difficult few weeks for Herts as they suffered major setbacks with key players out with injuries. Several of those players should be back fit very soon and this, combined with the return of Zack Longboy and the upcoming NBL debut of Andrew Fulford, could give Herts teams the momentum they need to get back in the playoff races in the various leagues.

Herts youngsters begin journey on the road to the Little League World Series

The U17 Baseball League (South) commences this Saturday as the Herts Harriers travel to the LYBL Bulldogs. Many of the Bulldogs are members of the 2013 Cobham Cougars so this is considered as something of a re-match after the 2013 Under-17 National Championship Final between the Harriers and the Cougars, which Herts lost 6-9.

The U17 Baseball League (South) is a competition which runs during the regular season. It comprises teams from the South of England. The teams are divided into two divisions, Division 1 and Division 2, based on their ranking. Herts will be represented by two teams – the Herts Harriers in Division 1 and Herts Ravens in Division 2.

An All Star team representing the U17 Baseball League (South) is scheduled to enter the Little League qualification competition. That team will meet the team representing the North/Midlands U17 League to determine which team will represent the United Kingdom in the next round. The winner of that encounter will progress through to the Little League European Qualifier which will be held in Novara, Italy. The winner of the Little League European qualifier will fly to the USA for the Little League World Series, which is broadcast live on ESPN around the world. Little League was founded in 1939. Today it is the world’s largest and most respected youth sports organization with more than 2.6 million participants in more than 75 countries across the world.

The Herts Under-12 teams will also be taking part. For that age group the competition remains at a national level and culminates with the Little League UK Championship on 14-15 June which will be played at Farnham Park.

KEY DATES
U17, U15, U13, U12 Little League UK Qualifier – 14 and 15 June 2014, Farnham Park, UK
U17 Little League European Qualifier – 6 to 12 July 2014, Novara, Italy
U17 Little League World Series – 10 to 16 August 2014, Bangor, Maine USA

For more information, games schedule, scores, standings and more visit the U17 Baseball League web pages.

 

Herts Harriers prepare for Belgian challenge

This Bank Holiday Weekend almost all British baseball league teams are resting due to a GB event, however there are several Herts teams in action.

On Saturday, 24 May, Herts Harriers will make the short trip to Canons Park for the final day of the ISST Baseball Championships. Herts will join five varsity league teams – ASL Eagles, ACS Cobham, TASIS, STJ Lions and IS Brussels.

From the scores over the last two days we expect that the Herts Harriers will face the IS Brussels team from Belgium. The game was originally scheduled for 9:00am, however the organisers have moved the start time back to 9:30am, an adjustment which has been required due to the adverse weather forecast.

Herts Harriers will be missing a large number of players due to GB team call-ups and the injury to starting pitcher, Tom Armstrong, in last Sunday’s NBL game versus Essex Arrows.

Also on Saturday, at Grovehill Ballpark, there is under 12 league game between the Herts Dodgers and the Herts Giants.

On Sunday, the Herts Raptors welcome the Haverhill Blackjacks in a repeat of last season’s Single-A national championship semi-final which the Raptors lost narrowly. The game will start at 1pm at Grovehill Ballpark’s New Diamond.

 

Cougars beat Harriers to reclaim their national title

This article by Michael Jones and David Dunphy was first published on britishbaseball.org

Following a relatively comfortable semi-final win over Halton on Saturday, the Cobham Cougars had to work harder on Sunday 15 September at the BBF’s Pony National Baseball Championships at Farnham Park, but ultimately had enough to overcome a feisty Herts Harriers side and defend their Pony title.

Cobham, defending Pony champions and finalists for the fourth consecutive year, came into this game having swept Halton convincingly in Saturday’s semi-final but were second seeds based on regular season record. The Harriers, many of whom were Bronco Under-14 champions three years ago, were in their first-ever Pony final, and could smell victory, with their legions of fans whooping at every success.

After Herts starter Will Zucker tossed a goose egg in the top of the first inning, Carlos Casal and Callum Vangundy reached base before Conner Brown provided the key hit, driving in two runs with a double through right field to give Herts an early lead.

Cobham pulled one run back, then blanked Herts and tied the score in the top of the third inning when Jonny Fretheim’s deep sacrifice fly was enough for Cobham pitcher Jacob Dean to tag up and score, the pitcher thus helping his own cause.

Cobham failed to score in the fourth inning, but as Herts struggled against Jacob Dean, the Cougars were about to pounce on Will Zucker in the fifth. Patient batting and then hits from Spencer Dellapina and Andrew Lee brought in three runs, with Connor Dellapina then adding another after scoring on a throwing error before Jose Morillo replaced Zucker on the mound.

By the time Cobham had batted around, they led by five runs and it looked like the defending champions would lift the trophy again.

With the fans and coaches lifting Herts, they were soon back to within two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning, but the rally ended with the bases loaded.

More Cobham offense restored a four-run advantage, and as Herts came to bat in the bottom of the seventh inning, they needed four runs to take the game into extra innings and five runs to win. The Herts supporters, backing their side with horns and vuvuzuelas, continued to cheer at every opportunity, which was met with some annoyance from other spectators around the ground.

Off-field antics aside, the Herts players knew that they needed to do the damage on the diamond. With runners at second and third and one out, Conner Brown drove in Jose Morillo to start the scoring. But the game ended soon after as Jonny Compton-Weight couldn’t catch up to an outside pitch, ending up in the dirt as he finished his swing.

However, late drama erupted as coaches began arguing about whether the third strike was dropped. Umpire Cody Cain stood by his call – that the ball went straight into Jonny Fretheim’s glove behind the plate – and tensions reached boiling point with Charlie Mayhew ejected following a heated exchange with the umpire, for which he later apologised.

CLICK TO VIEW BOX SCORES

Winning Manager Jeff Dellapina said of the Cobham title defence: “It was a terrific game and the kids at this age know what they’re doing, so I don’t have to coach much! Herts were great too, and they hit the heck out of the ball throughout the match.

“There’s not much in it between all the teams in this league, especially this year,” Dellapina added, “so it could have been any one of four teams just from the South in the final, let alone the Northern sides.”

Reflecting on Cobham’s chances for next year, Dellapina said: “A lot of our guys are moving up from youth baseball so we’ll work on recruitment over the winter in time for spring and hopefully we can defend our title. It would certainly be interesting to see if we can start to develop a senior team for them to filter into for the future.”

Herts Harriers through to the National Final

Herts fans played a key role in the game giving the energy which the Harriers needed to go through to the Final

This article by Michael Jones was first published on britishbaseball.org

The Herts Harriers edged the first Pony semi-final in a gripping encounter to start the day, while Cobham Cougars began the defence of their title by jumping out early against Halton Polecats.

London and Herts – the two largest clubs in the country – squared off on the first game of the under-17 semi-finals around half an hour later than scheduled following heavy overnight rain. However, the delay only gave fans more time to prepare themselves for the clash of the titans in this division. With faces painted and spirits high despite the inclement conditions, when they took the field the crowd was ready for action and the juniors themselves eager to perform in their biggest game of the season to date.

The Mets (5-1) – losing finalists in 2012 but consistently in and around the finals of big tournaments – were the lower seeds in this semi-final, but with plenty of playoff experience as the current side is formed from much of the Under-14 champions from seasons past.

But though they made the Harriers work for their outs early on, the Herts side made them well and Tom Everex-Armstrong kept his diamond clean, matched only by opposite number Ewan Clegg. In the top of the first, Clegg was first to cross the plate following a lead-off double, driven in by Takuya Motohashi to get the ball rolling. But it was all the Mets could muster as Herts regrouped and played some good defence.

Everex-Armstrong showed his batting might, leading off with a ground-rule double, but he couldn’t get round the diamond before Clegg struck out the side and maintained London’s narrow advantage.

An error-strewn two minutes saw Dexter Bohn score the Mets second run but that rally was capped too as both sides demonstrated maturity and composure beyond their young years.

Cue the onslaught. Having loaded the bases, Herts sought something big from Jose Morillo and the youngster stepped up with a sac-fly to centre, seeing Charlie Mayhew halve the lead. And then Carlos Casal capitalised on a passed ball to tie things up, before Conner Brown snuck one through the left side to turn the game on its head when he drove in Zack Longboy. But despite loading the bases once again, they couldn’t make more of it and they would have to be satisfied with a 3-2 lead.

Not to be outdone, the Mets themselves put runners on all the bags for Dexter Bohn, whose pop-up deep in the hole was enough to see Max Caplan beat the ball back to home, but again the teams were trading tightly and stifling opportunities to capitalise.

With the potential go-ahead run deciding to make a move as Herts forced the issue, Clegg blocked the dish to stop Charlie Mayhew scoring, but he couldn’t do much as Matt Tarrant narrowly missed a tag on Carlos Casal on the next play as the Harriers edged ahead once more.

Some substitutions to try to spark a little extra into the Mets line-up failed to culminate in a run, while Everex-Armstrong reached his pitch limit and was replaced by Casal on the mound. London’s Clegg also took a break, being relieved by Suhi Kamada as the game neared its dramatic conclusion.

Jonny Compton-Weight made the most of some momentary lapses in London’s defence to get on base, putting himself at second before scoring an insurance run for Herts as Callum VanGundy laced a double to the left field wall, but again that’s all that the scorers were troubled by.

Two strikeouts gave Herts the edge but Bohn lined a single to centre and inspired the side behind him to drive him in, Marty Cullen providing the key RBI. But it was business as usual as the defence rallied to save further inroads into the Herts lead.

Herts then saw Morillo come home to restore a two-run lead, but in trying to extend it Everex-Armstrong was tagged at the plate by Matt Tarrant who turned quickly to pick up a rebound from the backstop.

Three outs remained, London needing two to tie things in the final inning. With runners at one and two with no outs, odds were in their favour to make something happen, but Longboy stayed strong on the mound and induced the final ground-out to advance to Sunday’s final.

CLICK TO VIEW BOX SCORES

London manager Steve Saltzberger reflected: “Pitching was light this year – one of our guys has gone back to Japan, another is in the NBL roster who were also playing today. But full credit to Herts. It’s a great organisation and that team has been developing for a number of years, running us close all season.

“For some of our kids who have been together for seven years, it’ll be the first time they’ve not been in the final, which is a new experience for them. But most of the kids are still below the upper age limit so there’ll always be next year.”

Harriers Manager Arnie Longboy wouldn’t be drawn in confirming who would pitch tomorrow, but said: “We’ve achieved our first objective, and so we’ll start fresh and go tomorrow ready to win. It’s the furthest our Under-17 team has ever gone.

“I’ve been watching these kids grow up over the past few years. I was with them when they won the Under-14 title three years ago and most of the same guys are still here. We have a great set-up and winning tomorrow will help further develop the programme and the talent from within the club.

Herts Harriers eliminate London Mets to go through to national final this Sunday

The Herts Harriers are through to the U17 League national final after a 6-4 win over the London Mets earlier today. Full report will be published in due course.

They will now face the Cobham Cougars in the national final, after the reigning champions beat Halton Polecats in the other Semi-Final.

The Final will be played at Farnham Park on Sunday, 15 September.  First pitch is at 10:00am.